The overall capacities of broadband satellites and computer networks are increasing exponentially, and such capacity increases present unique challenges in the associated transmission systems and network designs. The goal of the system designers, system operators, and service providers is to support and provide efficient, robust, reliable and flexible services, in a shared bandwidth network environment, utilizing such high capacity satellite systems or computer networks. Further, with respect to system operation it is desirable to support multi-tiered sales structured. For example a system owner may wish to set up a sales structure for the resale of network services that comprises resellers, who ultimately resell network capacity and services to end-users.
Furthermore, as the global networks have become more complex, an emerging field of telecommunications logistics providers has arisen. Such logistics providers deliver network management services for large communications networks that may span across multiple carriers, via their own networks and supporting infrastructure. The provision of such services via separately-owned networks and infrastructure, however, introduces a significant amount of cost, effort and complexity that is involved in the setup and maintenance of such networks and supporting infrastructure. Historically, network configurations were provided for each customer via a network management domain, which typically comprise a categorization or isolation of configurations pertaining to a particular customer. Within the network management domain, profiles are configured for respective end-user types, and when the network operator accesses the network management domain he accesses those particular configurations and profiles for providing communications services to customers. These network management domains, however, strictly dealt with configurations within the network, and lacked any provision for application of bandwidth limitations and the allocation of bandwidth with respect to a particular VAR. Such network management domain configurations also lacked any ability to provide the network operator control over a network of partitioned and dedicated bandwidth, such as configuration, management and operational capabilities, and monitoring and maintenance functionality, with respect to the operator's network and associated bandwidth. Network management domains lacked a true capability and access control framework to support a flexible reseller regime, but instead only facilitated a limited set of access control based on high levels of functionality and failed to accurately or precisely segregate or isolate bandwidth. Accordingly, the VAR was required to rely on the host network operator for all such operational control over the network, and for pre-configuration of the end-user service plans and applications to be supported by the network.
The changing marketplace and increasing demand for Internet connectivity have thus forced carriers to implement and operate “virtual” networks as a normal part of doing business globally. For example, a Virtual Network Operator (VNO) is a provider of management services and a reseller of network services purchased from communications service network owners and wholesalers. The VNO typically does not own the network communications infrastructure utilized for the supply of communications network services. Instead, such providers deliver network services to customers without owning the underlying network, and hence are categorized as “virtual network operators.” The VNO typically leases bandwidth at the wholesale rates from various telecom providers, and resells communications services (based on the wholesale capacity) via a virtual network. Moreover, a fully virtual VNO does not have any technical facilities or technical support, and instead relies on support delivered by infrastructure providers.
Accordingly, the need for VNO capabilities is becoming an ever increasing necessity in order to compete in the growing global network communications services marketplace. For example, satellite service providers are offering new service packages for second tier providers who in turn repackage these services for sale to their end-user customers. Further, such second tier providers now desire more control over their purchased satellite services, and desire to manage the purchased resources with minimal support from the system operators. With a robust VNO capability, therefore, satellite operators can meet such current requirements of second tier providers (and further tier customers), selectively providing resources, operations and network management tools of the primary network to such sub tier providers and customers.
Such multi-tiered sales structures, however, present various system design and operational challenges. Such challenges, for example, include the provision of an effective partition of network resources into controlled segregated subsets, and the provision of a rich and extensible reseller capability set, supporting a feature-rich and user-friendly network interface. Further challenges include, the facilitation of a clear delineation between host operator and reseller roles, to clearly delineate the network management roles between the host network operator and the reseller or virtual network operator, in a manner whereby a host network operator can provide segregated bandwidth to respective virtual networks and allow the respective virtual network operators to have full control over the ultimate services and applications provided to their end-user clients.
What is needed, therefore, is a robust and feature-rich virtual network operator (VNO) capability, which provides network operators with full management control over respective virtual network services (with minimal support from the host system operators), via efficient segregation of the VNO network from the primary system operations and selective provision of resource, operations and network management tools to the VNO.